Two Duke Lacrosse Players Get Indicted, Rest of Us Still Clueless

Well, it was simply a matter of time before one or more Duke lacrosse players would be indicted in the investigation of the alleged rape of a Durham, North Carolina woman. On Monday afternoon two sealed indictments were borne from a grand jury, about a month after the incident took place:

Judge Ronald Stephens of Superior Court sealed the indictments after the grand jury adjourned, citing a state law that allows indictments to remain secret until a defendant is arrested or appears in court.

The two team members could appear in court as soon as Tuesday morning.

Mr. Ekstrand issued a brief written statement at 9 p.m., saying in part, “Today, two young men have been charged with crimes they did not commit.”

He did not identify the men or the charges.

Indeed, the plot thickens, because the whole dang case was just a little cut and dry before, don’t you think? Sheesh.

So here’s the latest monkey wrench: Only two men were indicted, yet the common water cooler factoid is that three guys were in on the gang rape. Plus, Ryan McFadyen, the player who sent out that disgusting e-mail to his teammates, is claimed to not be one of the two indicted.

Seriously, guys, I’m waiting for it. I’m waiting for another plot twist. But the question is: what the hell is gonna happen next? Does a team member break the silence and tell all on SportsCenter? Does the woman discover she’s pregnant? Does she confess that she made it all up?

At this juncture I wouldn’t be surprised by any of those outcomes, based on the complexity of the story.

No. Freakin’. Clue. But you know what’s satisfying? None of us know, including the reporters.

Perhaps we should all walk away from it while the investigation unfolds. To most of our knowledge, nothing in terms of legal process, evidence, nor bias has been botched. All the policemen and judicial officials appear to have done a commendable job up to this point.

Now among the major players include Jesse Jackson, who has offered to pay the college tuition for the female accuser, even if she turns out to have made up the story. Scarier still, I agree with the unabashedly loud Stephen A. Smith:

You can tell Jesse Jackson is coming from a mile away. All you have to do is follow the noise and rest assured that the Baptist preacher’s fire-and-brimstone rhetoric won’t be far behind. So forgive me if I’m annoyed as the Rev. Jackson pushes his way into this situation, potentially polarizing communities nationwide in all the wrong ways, possibly jeopardizing our interest in the truth – purely because we’re disgusted by his version of things.

As well as his participation.

Oh, it gets better.

A former lawyer for Bill Clinton is now defending the lacrosse team. Bob Bennett was on the defense during the whole Paula Jones fiasco. We officially have high-profile names on both sides of the court.

The case may — no, will — evolve from your garden variety “he said/she said” sexual assault case into a debate about equality among race, gender, and class. And as important as those issues are in the world, there’s no time in this story to sort them out. There’s a rape accusation to dissect.

Rehashing all these societal topics during the impending trial will likely not bring us any closer to a solution for racism. And worse, it’s not fair to both the lacrosse players, the young woman, or the truth.

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this case is turning into more of a disaster everyday, and the person to blame is the prosecutor.

he painted himself into a corner from day one and found himself in a position where he had to indict someone. that isn’t good for anyone.

and as far as indictments go, the old saying is “you can indict a ham sandwich,” so this development means pretty much nothing.

this prosecutor will turn out to be just one of the losers as a result of this case.

http://theugliestamerican.blogspot.com Andy Marsh

I was flipping channels last night and on alot of the news channels the discussion was centered on the fact that she’s a stripper. That seems to be the big defense here…she was a stripper so she asked for it…that’s if it ever happened at all.

I would have thought that if she was gonna go after money she should have picked a college sport that atually gets money, like football. Or are LaCrosse palyers mostly from wealthy families?

http://www.futonreport.net/ Matthew T. Sussman

Let’s just put it this way Andy: It’s Johns Hopkins only power house sport.